Wild Child
by Thalia Castellan
Summary: The best time in her life was when she was on the run with her heroes. It was a time before Percy, before voting on who would get too stay alive; before Luke got his scar. And most of the time, it was as close to nirvana as she would ever get.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything recognizable from the books.

**Grammar and/or spelling: **I did my best. If you have any tips, I'd love to hear them.

**Soundtrack: **Thank U by Alanis Morissette or something else of that sort of hopeful but sort of sad nature.

**OOCness: **I know dream-Thalia is a bit off. She just ended up that way.

**Story line: **This was inspired by _To Wish in Vain_. It's not a prelude, or epilogue, or anything like that. I just thought that I focused so much on the bad parts of Annabeth's life, that maybe I should write something that doesn't seem like a doomsday prophesy.

My conclusion? I should stop trying to write 'happy' fics.

* * *

It was so long ago, but she still remembers. Remembers the sweet smell of rain, the sends-shivers-up-your-spine feeling of standing barefoot in a puddle of mud, remembers the deliciously wonderful feeling of waking up squeezed between the two people who love you most.

It's been many, many, years; but still, she remembers.

* * *

"Hey Luke, watch what I can do!"

Seven year old Annabeth cartwheels down the hill's sloping side, giggling hysterically when she falls flat on her face at the bottom.

The grass is cool beneath her small body, and she is content to lay there for awhile; her limbs outstretched and her golden halo of hair spread around her head like a mini-sun. She had even gone so far as too close her eyes, to better soak in the generous sunlight, when a shadow falls over her and she is forced to reopen them.

"Where are your shoes?" Luke asks, glancing puzzled down at her bare-feet.

"I left them with Thalia," The girl says, her smile widening as a butterfly comes close to landing on her nose.

The older boy hesitates a moment, glancing back at the crest of the hill as if it's going to scold him, and then lays down beside her. "It's nice today, huh?"

She nods her agreement. It _is _warm. Especially for early October.

The wind starts to pick up a few short minutes later. Annabeth rolls onto her side and inches toward Luke until he gets the hint and wraps his arms around her middle. She sighs in delight. She feels so warm and happy, like nothing could possibly go wrong.

But of course, something in the universe has to go and prove her mistaken.

"Why am I the only one doing anything?" Another shadow falls over Annabeth, this time slightly smaller then the first.

"Sorry, Thals," Luke answers, pulling himself up and away from Annabeth. "It must be horrible having to start a fire all on your lonesome."

Annabeth smiles as the all too familiar scene plays out. Thalia punches Luke, Luke tackles her, she electrocutes him, he agrees to go help her. It's an endless cycle of strangely endearing abuse.

Watching her protectors make their way back up the hill-engaged in a verbal conflict of one kind or another-Annabeth squirms in delight. It's so nice to finally have a family.

It's even better to have a family made up of monster killing, lighting shooting, almost but not quite grown up demigods.

* * *

"Annabeth, give that back! I need it!"

Annabeth dove to the left, narrowly avoiding a shirtless Thalia. "But it smells like Luke!" The little girl whined, pressing the gray teeshirt to her nose.

Thalia crossed her arms over the black sports-bra she was wearing and glared at the smaller half-blood. "It's your fault," She snapped angrily. "Give it back."

Annabeth shook her head, and her grip on the shirt tightened. Why should Thalia get one of Luke's shirts if she didn't? She loved him just as much as Thalia did. Maybe even more.

"Come on, Annabeth!" Thalia lunged for the blond, but Annabeth jumped out of the way. And then, before Thalia could try and grab her again, the small girl tore off through the woods, praying Thalia wouldn't follow.

The gods didn't appear to be listening however, because Thalia raced after her.

Annabeth clutched the shirt and dodged a tree. She felt a stab of guilt in her chest when she looked over her shoulder and saw the still shirtless Thalia chasing after her. After all, it _was_ sort of her fault Thalia needed to wear one of Luke's shirts.

See, two day earlier, Thalia had been out gathering firewood, and Luke had been fishing in the creek nearby. Annabeth was suppose to be watching their stuff, but she'd fallen asleep. When she awoke, a hellhound had devoured all of the wet laundry hanging on a tree branch near their safe-house. Unfortunately for Thalia, most of that laundry had been hers.

They'd managed to salvage a pair of pants and some underwear, but all of her socks and shirts had been eaten. How lovely for Thalia.

Being Thalia, the daughter of Zeus had decided only having one shirt wasn't a problem. But then, the day afterwards, while battling the same hellhound who'd eaten her clothes-Annabeth had been two afraid to kill it by herself-her only shirt had been, well, totaled.

_You can't let her have it. That would be giving-up! _Annabeth nodded along with the voice in her head. It would be giving-up. And besides, she was having fun.

The trees were starting to thin, and Annabeth realized with a jolt that they'd run in a complete circle and were headed back towards their safe-house. Putting on a burst of speed, Annabeth leapt into the clearing, triumphant.

And then she tripped on a rock.

"I swear Annabeth, I'm going to-"

When Thalia's threat was cut abruptly off, Annabeth opened her eyes. She was expecting to see like, eighty monsters sounding the raven haired girl, keeping her from attacking.

Instead, she saw Luke pressing his lips against Thalia's.

Like Annabeth, Thalia looked startled and-for maybe the first time in her life-unsure of what to do. She looked heartbreakingly torn between kissing the son of Hermes back or roasting Annabeth to a crisp.

"So Annabeth," Luke started, pulling away from Thalia after what seemed like hours to Annabeth. "Five second head start." And then he returned his attention to Thalia's lips.

Of course, when Thalia realized she been setup, she tried to go after the already fleeing Annabeth. But by the time Luke let go of her arm, Annabeth was already long gone.

* * *

"Hey Sleepyhead, get up!" Annabeth grinned when Thalia's only response was to roll over.

"She's lazy," Luke said, poking Thalia's shoulder.

Most nights, Annabeth slept in-between Luke and Thalia. But the night before, Luke had quietly explained to Annabeth that he was going to have Grover take the last watch, instead of Thalia-despite her protests of being fine, Thalia had looked exhausted-and so it made sense to have her in the middle so that if she tried to get up in the night, they could stop her.

Thalia hadn't. She'd sort of disappointed Annabeth, who'd been looking forward to having an excuse to tackle the daughter of Zeus. But on the flip side, she'd gotten a good night's sleep.

"Get up! Get up! Getup, getup, getup!" Annabeth sang, copying Luke and jabbing Thalia's back with her small fingers.

"Actually, 'getup' means 'outfit', not 'come on, get yourself out of bed'."

Annabeth stopped assaulting Thalia's back, and Thalia herself raised her head to look at Luke.

"What?" Luke asked, looking back at their unsettled faces with a puzzled expression of his own.

"You never know anything," Muttered Thalia, lying back down. "And then you'll say something so random it's freaky."

Luke huffed and crossed his arms. "Just because I'm smart-" He started.

He never got to finish, because both girls launched themselves at him and effectively shut him up.

* * *

"I'm hot."

"And self-centered," Luke added.

Normally, Thalia would've electrocuted Luke, and they would've entertained Annabeth for at least five minutes. But not this time. This time Annabeth got the feeling that even Thalia was to hot to put any effort into anything.

They were lying in a circle; Thalia then Luke, then Annabeth, then Grover. Annabeth couldn't see Thalia, but Luke's normally pale face was flushed, and his forehead was covered in beads of sweat. On her other side, Grover looked simply miserable.

Grover had said camp was only a few days away. And it probably had been, two days ago. But now, many wrong turns later, they were hiding in an attic Luke had managed to sneak them into. Just outside, monsters were roaming the streets, looking for them.

"If I die," Grover said suddenly, breaking the horribly uncomfortable warm silence. "I want you to know that I'm sorry for taking so many wrong turns."

The satyr's apology was followed by the sound of Thalia slapping him. "It's not your fault." She said firmly. "And if _I _die, then I'm sorry that out of all the half-bloods in the world, I _had _to get mixed up with the most annoying son of Hermes ever."

Luke 'hey-ed!', Annabeth laughed, and even Grover managed a chuckle.

"And I'm sorry I _carried_ a certain daughter of Zeus most of the way to my mom's house. Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't half to be laying here right now, contemplating if I'm going to die today."

"Thanks, Luke." Thalia said dryly, "I really appreciate the love."

Annabeth laughed along with the rest of them. It felt so good to laugh. After four days of being chased nonstop by monsters of every kind, it was nice to take a break and laugh until she cried.

"What about you?" Luke asked, jabbing her in the ribs with his elbow. "What are you sorry for?"

Annabeth smiled in delight, remembering a day not so far in the past that had provided her with _hours _of entertainment. "I'm sorry for stealing Thalia's clothes and blaming Luke for taking them."

After admitted to the crime and hearing electricity snappingon Thalia's fingertips, Annabeth realized just how glad she was that Thalia was to hot and tired to get up and run her clear through.

"That was _you_?" Thalia gasped, her voice raising half an octave. "I had to run around in my _underwear _for most of the day!"

"I know," Annabeth burst out laughing again and turned onto her side, pressing her hands over her aching stomach. "It was so funny!"

"If I get out of this alive..." Thalia trailed off, leaving the empty threat hanging in laughter-filled air.

* * *

"I can't run any more."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth then she had fallen flat on her back. Tears were on her cheeks, and her nose was runny. She was hot, tired, and she could no longer feel her legs. She was miserable.

Luke knelt down beside her, and even though he too was wincing, he held out his arms, beckoning for her to let him carry her.

"Luke, no." Thalia rested her hand on his arm and looked down at Annabeth. For a terrifying second, Annabeth wondered if Thalia was going to say they should just leave her. "You can't carry her, and Grover, and me, and yourself. We need to stop and rest."

Their eyes met, and for once, Annabeth didn't care what they were saying to each other. All she carried about was that she was resting. And a moment later, Luke, Thalia, and Grover too fell over backwards and just lay there, on the ground, panting.

They'd been running since the night before. Since the Cyclops. Since they'd almost died.

"I wish it would rain," Annabeth said suddenly, looking up at the gray sky and staring as hard as she could; as if that would do anything.

To her complete surprise, a moment later, a scatter of drops fell on her face. And more followed. More and more raindrops fell from the sky, and quite suddenly, it was pouring.

Grover sighed in contentment as closed his eyes, outwardly appearing to be asleep. Luke reached out his hands and grabbed one of Thalia's and one of Annabeth's, his own eyes slowly closing. Thalia, who'd looked so beaten and trampled just minutes before, looked like she'd soaked in the rain rolling off her freckled nose, and along with it, it's energy.

"You did this," Annabeth whispered. "You made it rain."

Thalia nodded, her eyes glued to the sky. "Yeah, guess I did."

"Thanks," Annabeth whispered, closing her gray eyes and letting her mind let go and shutdown.

* * *

For the first time in ages, her bed is warm and dry, she is clean, and her stomach is full. Despite many odd looks, Luke is lying beside her, his chest moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern that means he's asleep.

But on her other side is a wall. Thalia will never sleep beside her again, never tease her, never make her momentarily jealous by kissing Luke. Thalia is gone. A tree. Off on an adventure Annabeth can't accompany her on.

Her only consolation as the tears start to fall is that Luke can't go either. For once, she's got Luke beside her, and she can be almost certain he isn't leaving.

She dreams that night. She dreams about Thalia. About their last conversation only hours earlier.

"_You did this. You made it rain."_

"_Yeah, guess I did."_

_She would have said so much more if she'd known she'd never get a chance to say anything else to the girl then simply screaming her name. She feels so guilty for not saying sorry about everything she did. About not thanking her more sincerely, about not being more appreciative every time Thalia sacrificed something in her favor._

"_It's okay," Whispers the raven haired girl. "I don't mind." Annabeth opens her mouth to protest, but doesn't. Instead, she nods._

"_Take care of him for me," Thalia says, glancing fondly down at the sleeping boy. "He's going to need you."_

"_He loves you more," Annabeth whispers, blinking back shameful tears._

_Thalia sits down on the bed and gently takes the blond girl's hands in her own. "Not necessarily," She says, her voice sad. "You have no idea how much he loves you."_

_Annabeth smiles through her tears, not stopping to consider that Thalia might not be joking. She looks towards the raising sun and the lean pine waiting on the horizon. She breaks down at the sigh of the tree. It's all to much for a seven year old to handle._

"_I've got to go," Thalia whispers regretfully. "I love you, my little Wild Child." She adds, bending forward and planting a gentle kiss on Annabeth's forehead. _

"_Both of you," She says, looking down at Luke with an impassive face._

"_Take care of him," She says again, her voice firmer this time._

_And then she is gone. She walks off, disappearing into the swirling mist of the early morning dawn, leaving Annabeth's broken heart only slightly healed._


End file.
